Granite Telecom CEO, employees go bald for cancer research

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 6:00 AM

Granite Telecommunications CEO Rob Hale and 282 employees will shave their heads and beards Monday to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The event is expected to raise at least $846,000.

Lane Lambert The Patriot Ledger @llambert_ledger

QUINCY – Come Monday, Granite Telecommunications in Quincy is going to have a lot of bald, beardless employees, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute will have almost $850,000 in new money for cancer research.

CEO Rob Hale and 282 employees will line up at the company’s corporate headquarters at 9 a.m. Monday for a “Granite going bald” shave, with Hale going first. The event will include representatives from Dana Farber and the Gillette Corp., which is donating the razors for the shave.

Granite Telecom has pledged $1,000 for each employee who goes bald and beardless, and Hale and his mother Judy Hale will each match an additional $1,000, for a total of $3,000 for each employee – a total of $846,000.

A company spokeswoman said more employees are expected to go bald for the cause in the coming weeks, so the final donation will be close to $1 million.

Granite Telecommunications provides broadband data, network and voice phone services to U.S. and Canadian firms, including more than two-thirds of America’s Fortune 500 companies. Granite has 1,100 employees, most of them at the company’s North Quincy offices.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @LLambert_Ledger.